Perry,
On Wednesday 11th August 2010 we outlined our motivation for using NetBSD/i386
1.5.3:
"One reason we went with NetBSD/i386 1.5.3 was that [
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetBSD ] states that 1.5 was released December 6,
2000" and [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slackware ] states that Slackware 7.0
was released circa 2000 (a little before if we can read the figure correctly)."
[ http://mail-index.netbsd.org/pkgsrc-users/2010/08/13/msg012571.html ]
On Sunday 22nd August 2010 we expanded on our motivation:
"This was compounded by the fact that Slackware 7.0 was running happily on the
machine beforehand and NetBSD/i386 1.5.3 seemed close to the Slackware 7.0
release date. The dates were significant to us for the "complexity" of the
kernel, userland and older packages, i.e. the RAM, diskspace and processing
speed issue."
[ http://mail-index.netbsd.org/pkgsrc-users/2010/08/22/msg012626.html ]
Also, as mentioned on Sunday 22nd August 2010:
"The NetBSD 5.0.2/i386 GENERIC kernel (alleged) causing the 486 to halt in
contrast to the older NetBSD/i386 1.5.3 GENERIC kernel (alleged) booting
successfully was a significant motivating factor for using the older release."
[ http://mail-index.netbsd.org/pkgsrc-users/2010/08/22/msg012626.html ]
The use of "believe" in this context refers to the kernel used on the boot1.fs
disk image [
ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD-archive/NetBSD-1.5.3/i386/installation/floppy/
] ( and the NetBSD/i386 5.0.2 equivalent ) rather than the knowledge of whether
the machine booted.
Kind Regards,
--- On Sun, 22/8/10, Perry E. Metzger <perry%piermont.com@localhost> wrote:
> From: Perry E. Metzger <perry%piermont.com@localhost>
> Subject: Re: Old Binary Packages/Sources (NetBSD/i386 1.5.3)?
> To: "The Beyonder" <beyonder04%yahoo.co.uk@localhost>
> Cc: "Ian D. Leroux" <idleroux%fastmail.fm@localhost>,
> pkgsrc-users%netbsd.org@localhost
> Date: Sunday, 22 August, 2010, 20:12
> On Sun, 22 Aug 2010 02:01:53 +0000
> (GMT) The Beyonder
> <beyonder04%yahoo.co.uk@localhost>
> wrote:
> > "
> > With regard to the question:
> >
> > > I don't understand why. You may want to use
> recent supported
> > > NetBSD and provide feedback on how it does or
> doesn't work well
> > > with your old system.
> >
> > The NetBSD/i386 5.0.2 GENERIC (we believe) kernel
> seemed to cause
> > the 486 to halt when booted from floppy disk. In
> contrast the
> > NetBSD/i386 1.5.3 GENERIC (again we believe) booted
> successfully.
>
> So why not NetBSD 4, NetBSD 3, NetBSD 2, or NetBSD 1.6? Why
> the
> arbitrary and capricious decision to use 1.5?
>
> Anyway, if you want to use 1.5, go right ahead, but I don't
> think
> anyone should be helping you to do that. It is an
> irrational
> decision. If, instead, you would like to get help running 5
> on your
> system, I think there are multiple people who would
> assist.
>
> Also what's with the "we" and "believe"? Are you a large
> group? Do you
> not *know* if the machine booted successfully or not?
>
> Perry
> --
> Perry E. Metzger perry%piermont.com@localhost
>